Flames in the Distance
by Venn364
Summary: If she knew what he had done... if she knew then what would she do? Would she forgive him, or would she condemn him like everyone else? A siblingy Toko one-shot set in my mysterious AU. May or may not make it into a full blown stroy later


**This story is set in an AU, I may or may not make it into a real full blown story later on. For now enjoy the Toko siblingness and work out who the boy Toph met is. **

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He found her sitting on the edge of a public fountain, what was probably the only non-stagnant fountain in the entire lower ring of Be Sing Sei. Her hands rested palm down on the ledge she sat upon, her bare toes trailing lazily in the water below. Her unseeing eyes stared straight ahead of her, giving off the impression they were focused on something far off in the distance, something only the young blind girl could see. A bemused yet happy expression adorned her face and a light blush dusted her still too pale cheeks as she hummed an eerily familiar tune.

Pushing his way none too gently through the crowd towards her, he called out her name, struggling to be heard about the dim of the square. Cursing as she didn't seem to hear him he tried again "Toph!" he was louder this time, with the added benefit of being just that little bit closer due to his continued struggles against the crowd. She seemed to hear him as her head swung suddenly in his direction and her palms pressed harder to the flat surface of the edge, fingers curling slightly to increase her grip, in an effort to discern who had called out to her.

Toph grinned, finally recognising the footsteps moving towards her, even more amusing was the fact that he was almost constantly tripping over himself and others as he moved through the crowd, trying to force his way through and seemingly oblivious to the fact the he should use the flow of the crowd to his advantage instead of fighting against it at every possible opportunity. He would make a horrible earthbender, unable to wait or think things through properly. She chuckled to herself, briefly imagining her idiotic brother trying to move rocks around.

Once he had finally reached where she was seated _(and knocked over some guy's cabbages, the man was too tired and injured to protest for once)_, he sat down beside her. Grinning at where she really hoped his face was _(all these people were making it hard to work out where everything was) _she brought her feet away from the water, turned her body towards him, and crossed her legs in front of her, spraying him with foot water in the process. "So _Lee_," she put an emphasis on the false name he had adopted in order to become a refugee of the Earth Kingdom "What brings you all the way out here this fine day?"

Unable to hold it in for even a second longer he exploded, hours of worry and searching bubbling to the surface, "Where have you been?! Uncle and I got home from the tea shop hours ago and you weren't there! Not only that but you didn't tell anyone where you were going! The neighbours didn't see you leave! Even that weird jerk with the leaf thing in his mouth that's been following us around for the last couple of weeks didn't have a clue where you were! Sundown Toph! It's sundown! Do you know what kind of people come out a sundown!" several people who came out at sundown for innocent reasons shot him dirty looks "Uncle told me to wait and not to worry too much but dammit I did and I waited and waited and you didn't fucking come home so I went looking for you. And now hear I find you sitting at the fountain, sunburned and goddamn HUMMING! I know you like your independence and stuff but hones-"

His tirade was cut off quite suddenly as a small, melodical giggle escaped Toph's lips at her brother's expense.

"It's not funny Toph! Remember what I just said about sundown?!" several more people shot him dirty looks for dissing the sundown people. Just as he was about to launch into another lecture, that any other time would have landed him six feet under, he froze. His mind rewound about 45 seconds and then replayed what it had heard. Unable to believe it his brain rewound and played it again. "Y-you-you-"

Toph crossed her arms in front of her "I what Sparky?"

His next words were said with such shock you'd think she'd announced that she'd met Azula and the crazy flame girl had pleasantly invited her back to the Fire Nation for tea and biscuits. "You giggled" He glanced around them, but, after finding no other signs of the impending apocalypse, he quickly turned back to face the now frowning girl in front of him. "What?"

"Let's you and me get one thing straight Sparky. I. Do. Not. Giggle." She accented her point but punching him hard on the arm, in the exact same place she'd hit every day since he met her. How she did this he would never know but what he did know, apart from the fact that his bruise was now probably permanent, was that whatever mysteriously good mood had seized her earlier had obviously deserted the moment Zuko had made the giggle comment.

In true Zuko style he proceeded to dig his hole even deeper with his next few comments. "I never said that giggling was a bad thing, it's just that it's uhh... it's-it's unusual, yeah, it's unusual for you to giggle. But not a bad thing honest, it's kinda nice cos I don't hear that kinda laugh from you often and you have a really nice laugh" Knowing he had just made things a hundred times worse for himself, probably even signing his own death warrant, he closed his eyes and braced for impact.

"_No really, it's great. It sound nice"_

It never came. When he finally dared to crack his eyes open he was met with what was probably rated number seven in the ten most shocking moments of his life. Toph. Blushing. Real blushing, flushed in the cheek. Touch of pink. However you want to say it. Now entirely convinced that at any moment either his father or Azula was going to jump out of nowhere and announce the immediate and unconditional surrender of the Fire Nation as well as their love of all things pink, cute and fluffy he decided to try his luck. "Sooo……. What exactly happened today?" he asked slowly, worried that at any moment he would get clocked anyway.

Her blush deepened and she looked away from him "Nothing"

Ok, now he was scared "Toph! What happened?"

"I told you, nothing happened" He gave her a disbelieving look and she cursed her ability to sense his facial expressions through the motion of the rest of his body. "If you really have to know, I met a boy today. We put up some posters together ok? No big deal." Another look "That's it I swear, nothing happened" The last part was said in a rush, she had tried a little too hard to be convincing making it perfectly clear that putting up posters was not the only thing that Toph and this boy had been doing today.

Alarm bells started going off in his head as his brain struggled to process this new information. Zuko's blood began to boil, the flames that resided at his very core burning with a blue flame in his rage. A boy with Toph, Toph with a BOY. Tomboy Toph who hated shoes, loved dirt and regularly picked fights with big muscled men over three times her size, had a crush, on some _boy_. This was not supposed to happen. Toph was supposed to hang around with him punching him in the arm and making sarcastic remarks until she was at least 30! And then maybe, _maybe_ he would let a boy within a ten metre radius without scorching him to death. Maybe. But, for the moment, there was no way he was going to let some _**boy**_ hang out with his twelve year old sister!

Toph edged slightly away from Zuko and his steadily raising body temperature and raging heartbeat. She was almost ready to push him into the fountain when she suddenly felt him cool rapidly as an aura of shame and sorrow settled on the older boy's shoulders. "Zuko? Are-…. Uhhh…. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine Toph" he murmured, gently taking her hand with his he got up from the fountain and tugged her up with him, remembering suddenly the water tribe siblings he had encountered during his time hunting the avatar, and the look on the water boy's face as he realised that Zuko was more than willing to sacrifice both him and the waterbender in order to obtain the boy avatar. He glanced down at Toph's hand and marvelled at how small it was compared to his own, and yet it held more strength than an entire platoon of Fire Nation soldiers.

His eyes travelled upwards to meet the confused and concerned gaze of the rough and tumble blind girl he loved more than almost anything else in the world, and would give up even his honour to protect. He wondered what in the world had he done to deserve having her as a sister, even if not by blood. He moved a bit further down this line of thought and had to ask himself if he even had the right to be her big brother and protect her as such.

A small sigh escaped his lips as he contemplated that last thought and a frown played across his lips. Did he deserve to be her big brother? Did he deserve to happiness that came with it when he had been perfectly willing to sacrifice others in order to achieve his own selfish ends? If she knew what he had done- if she knew then what would she do? Would she forgive him, or would she condemn him like everyone else?

Glancing back towards her he realised that, for now, it didn't matter. She was with him, and he would protect her whether she needed it or not. With that thought lingering in his mind he laced his fingers with hers as her frown deepened in concern. "Really Toph, I'm fine" He said, offering her a smile that she couldn't see, but that she could feel. "But this boyfriend of your's sure won't be when I get my hands on him. He shouldn't have kept you out so late, and no-one makes you blush without getting his ass seriously kicked" She was his little sister after all, and that was all that mattered to him.

She scowled at him, baring her teeth ever so slightly, "I didn't blush and he's not my boyfriend dumb-ass, but he is my friend so don't beat him up" Never mind that her face was redder than ever and her senses were still reeling a bit from the sudden shifts in emotion that she had felt from her brother just moments earlier. She felt his imploring tugging on her arm and aloud herself to be lead through the rapidly dispersing crowd towards the tiny apartment they shared with Uncle Iroh. It didn't matter how protective Zuko got, he had to go to work eventually, and failing that she was confident that he wouldn't be bothering her friend and her when he was up to his neck in dirt, though Uncle might have a small problem with it.

Feeling the last vibrations of the fountain square fade out of her view she smiled. She had enjoyed herself immensely today and planned to repeat the experience tomorrow, though with less shouting on the part of her fellow lower-ringers. Chuckling softly to herself, and drawing a strange look from Zuko, she wondered how on the earth did that boy, who she most definitely did not like as more than a friend, expected her to know exactly when 10o'clock was so as to meet him back at the fountain.

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A cookie to the one who can work out how the Cabbage Man was injured, who injured him as well as the song that Toph was humming. Also REVIEW. I'm not sure if I'll continue this or leave it as a one-shot, I've been working on this in class-time, since it's based in an AU I don't need to reference my episodes much. Live with the knowledge that Toph is a girl, I think I may have made her slightly OOC in this, but I tried to keep her normal, and it is very hard to write 12 year olds with crushes.

**Also I have almost finished the rest of the first chapter of 'The Legend of Aang'. Yes I know it's been forever. I will repost the entire story so that the first chapter is all in one block. The second chapter will be released by the end of March and full first chapter by the end of February as I still have about 4000 words of it left to write, the main trouble is finding the time to get it all out of my head and into the computer. I apologise for not updating it sooner, but I've been swamped with assignments. **

**If any of you are over 18 and live in Australia than please PM me and take my survey as I need to do 50 people before I can write the report for my assignment. **

**Also................. REVIEW!!! XD**


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